Air India pays allowance to pilots after union threatens to halt operations

Air India's pilots union had threatened to abstain from flying duties if the allowance of its members were not paid immediately.

New Delhi: National passenger carrier Air India has paid the allowance to its pilots for the month of June, after their union threatened to abstain from flying duties. A senior Air India official said on Wednesday: "all pending allowances have been paid on Monday (August 20)."

Earlier, the airline's pilots union had threatened to abstain from flying duties if the allowance of its members were not paid immediately.

"We would like to inform you if the flying allowance is not paid immediately, we may not be available to the company for flying duties. Since the company has paid the salary, we will report to the office for any office duty of our expertise other than flying duties," the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) said in a letter to the company's management on August 16.

According to ICPA, basic salary constitutes only 30 per cent of the total earnings of pilots and the cabin crew.

"Every month we are being ignored while the company pays the rest of the employees in full and does not pay the flying allowance to pilots and cabin crew which forms the major part of our total earnings," the letter said.

The company paid July salaries on August 14. It paid the allowances after a month's lag.